Chinese Stir Fry Tofu Recipe

Chinese Stir Fry Tofu is my latest crush, I am simply in love with this Spicy, Crunchy and a bit sweet dish. Generally accompanied with rice or noodles, for me it is a complete meal in itself. The crunch of the outer layer of Tofu and the softness inside is just breath taking with crunch of veggies tossed in, calls for a perfect meal for me. This is one of those comfort foods that you make when a serious eat out craving hits, but you still want to cook at home to save a few calories.

If you have been following my blog, you by now know that I like cooking with healthy ingredients that comes with taste. My tofu stir fry is a perfect balance of spices, sauces; loaded with protein and comes together with in no time.

The inspiration of making this dish comes from Chili Paneer but it’s much healthier. The first time I had Tofu Stir fry was at a lovely authentic Chinese restaurant. The firmness of freshly made Tofu lightly marinated with spice was a dish to die for. Since then I have been thinking of it day and night, I mean the taste was so awesome it just got stuck to my pallet and every time I go out I look for it in the menu…(giggle)

Last week I thought of calling my friends home for Dinner, since it was my birthday. Instead of going out, I plan for a dinner party at home and presented a wholesome healthy menu to my friends, everything home cooked. The star of the night was my Chinese Stir Fry Tofu , since it was top of my head I planned to make this dish for my entrée.

Chinese Stir Fry Tofu is simple and convenient dish, it does not require special ingredients; just some Chinese sauces, veggies, flour and Tofu is all you need. It is convenient to make this dish with packaged tofu which comes in different varieties in super market. But make sure you pick the right pack; the tofu has to be soft.

You can also make your own Tofu at home, but that requires little time and technique. Making tofu at home from scratch is time-consuming and difficult without a soy milk maker as Tofu is made from soy milk. Most of the work involved in making tofu is making the soy milk. You will get so many articles on making Tofu but my favorite is what The Splendid Table make, you can find the recipe here.

So now you know how to make Tofu at home, let’s proceed to make our Tofu Stir fry. The process starts from marinating the Tofu cubes with light spices, flour and a little bit of cornflour. Since this is a healthy version, we will not deep fry the Tofu, will just shallow it in some sesame oil. Sesame oil gives this dish an authentic Asian flavor and a sweet distinctive aroma. Once the Tofu cubes are shallow fried and are lightly golden and crisp from outside, you just need to toss the cubes in sauces and veggies…tadaan! Your Chinese Stir Fry Tofu is ready.

My friends totally drooled over them, it’s not like, it was my birthday and people wanted to make me feel good. My Chinese Stir fry Tofu actually came out to be a winner that night. So what are you waiting for? give it a shot today! Scroll down for ingredients and method. I am sure you will get all the Compliments like I me 🙂

Ingredients & Quantity

200 grams soft Tofu

½ Red bell pepper, chopped in big cubes

½ Yellow bell pepper, chopped in big cubes

½ Green bell pepper, chopped in big cubes

1 medium Onion, chopped in big cubes

2-3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

½ cup spring onion greens, chopped roughly

4 tbs all-purpose flour

1 tbs corn flour

1 tbs black pepper, freshly ground

2 tbs sesame oil for shallow frying

½ tbs chili sauce (Or more as per taste)

1 tbs schezwan sauce

1 tbs soy sauce

½ tbs vinegar

1 tbs chili flakes

½ tbs tomato ketchup (optional)

1 tbs garlic paste

1 tbs ginger paste

Salt as per taste

How to cook?

Cut the tofu in cubes, approximately 1 inch

Now take a deep bowl and mix all-purpose flour, 3 tbs corn flour, black pepper, salt, garlic paste and some water to make a paste, the consistency should be medium, not too flowy not too thick.

Now put the tofu cubes in the mixture and marinate them.

Keep the remaining 1 tbs flour separately in a wide plate.

Heat sesame oil in a flat pan.

Take out the Tofu cubes from mix and slightly roll over flour in the plate and put it in the pan for shallow frying.

Shallow fry each batch flipping till golden brown.

Take out the Shallow fried Tofu on a kitchen towel so as to get rid of the excess oil.